Complete Health Indicator Report of Suicide

Definition

Suicide Death Rate: Number of resident deaths resulting from the intentional use of force against oneself per 100,000 population (ICD-10 codes X60-X84, Y87.0, *U03).
Suicide Risk Among Students: Percentage of students who reported a suicide risk factor (felt sad or hopeless, seriously considered attempting suicide, made a suicide plan, or attempted suicide) during the past 12 months.

Numerator

Suicide Death Rate: Number of deaths resulting from the intentional use of force against oneself.
Suicide Risk Among Students: Number of students who reported a suicide risk factor (felt sad or hopeless, seriously considered attempting suicide, made a suicide plan, or attempted suicide) during the past 12 months.

Denominator

Suicide Death Rate: Total number of persons in the population of Utah.
Suicide Risk Among Students: Number of surveyed Utah high school students.

Data Interpretation Issues

ICD stands for the International Classification of Diseases. It is a coding system maintained by the World Health Organization and the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics used to classify causes of death, such as suicide, on death certificates. These codes are updated every decade or so to account for advances in medical technology. The U.S. is currently using the 10th revision (ICD-10) to code causes of death. The 9th revision (ICD-9) is still used for hospital and emergency department visits.
The Youth Risk Behavior Survey includes surveys of representative samples of 9th through 12th grade students in public schools. The survey is conducted in odd years. Data are self-reported and subject to recall bias. Data are from a sample survey and subject to selection bias. Comparisons of annual rates must be interpreted cautiously as methods used to collect data my vary from year to year. With the introductions of active parental consent for Utah school surveys between 1997 and 1999, the student response rate for the survey decreased significantly. Participation in the 2015 was too low to meet the reporting threshold as defined by CDC, so results for that year are not available.

Why Is This Important?

From 2015 to 2017, Utah's age-adjusted suicide rate was 22.0 per 100,000 persons, with an average of 628 suicides per year. Utah had the fifth highest age-adjusted suicide rates in the U.S. during this time period.
In 2017, suicide was the leading cause of death for Utahns ages 10 to 17 and ages 18 to 24. It is the second leading cause of death for ages 25 to 44 and the fourth-leading cause of death for ages 45-64. Overall, suicide is the eighth-leading cause of death for Utahns (age-adjusted rate).
Completed suicides are only part of the problem. More people are hospitalized or treated in an emergency room for suicide attempts than are fatally injured. In 2014, the most recent data year available, 13 Utahns were treated for self-inflicted injuries every day (3,280 treat-and-release emergency department visits plus 1,294 total hospitalizations).
According to the 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, during the past 12 months before the survey Utah high school students reported the following: 33.0% felt sad or hopeless, 21.6% seriously considered attempting suicide, 17.1% made a suicide plan, 9.6% attempted suicide one or more times and 4.0% of these students suffered an injury, poisoning, or an overdose that had to be treated by a doctor or nurse.
2017 Prevention Needs Assessment data indicate that Salt Lake County had significantly higher rates of students reporting feeling sad or hopeless, TriCounty Health District students had significantly higher rates of seriously considering suicide, Salt Lake County had a significantly higher rates of students reporting making a suicide plan and of attempting suicide compared to the state.
All suicide attempts should be taken seriously. Those who survive suicide attempts are often seriously injured and many have depression and other mental health problems.
Suicide is a complex public health issue where victims may be blamed and family members stigmatized. Consequently, suicide is not openly discussed making it difficult to collect meaningful data that is vital to suicide prevention efforts.

How Are We Doing?

The 2017 Utah age-adjusted suicide rate was 22.7 per 100,000 population. Males (34.2 per 100,000 population) had a significantly higher age-adjusted suicide rate compared to females (11.5 per 100,000 population).
In Utah from 2015 to 2017, males had significantly higher suicide rates than females in every age group. Males ages 45-54 and 75 and older had the highest suicide rates among males (47.7 per 100,000 population). Females 45-54 years of age had the highest suicide rates among female age groups (22.1 per 100,000 population).
From 2015 to 2017, TriCounty LHD, Central Utah LHD, Southeast LHD, and Weber-Morgan LHD had significantly higher age-adjusted suicide rates compared to the state rate.
Among Utah Small Areas, SLC (Downtown) V2, Duchesne County, Ogden (Downtown), Kearns V2, Washington City, Southwest LHD (Other), Sandy (West), Daggett and Uintah County, and St. George had significantly higher age-adjusted suicide rates compared to the state rate during 2015-2017.

How Do We Compare With the U.S.?

Utah's suicide rate has been consistently higher than the national rate. In 2016 (the most recent national-level data year available), according to the National Center for Health Statistics, the age-adjusted suicide rate for the U.S. was 13.4 per 100,000 population, while Utah's suicide rate was 21.6 per 100,000 population during the same year.

What Is Being Done?

The UDOH Violence and Injury Prevention Program (VIPP) is funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to implement the Utah Violent Death Reporting System (UTVDRS). UTVDRS is a data collection and monitoring system that will help Utahns better understand the public health problem of violence by informing decision makers about the magnitude, trends, and characteristics of violent deaths such as suicide, and to evaluate and continue to improve state-based violence prevention policies and programs. Data are collected from the Office of the Medical Examiner, Vital Records, and law enforcement agencies and are linked together to help identify risk factors, understand circumstances, and better characterize perpetrators of violent deaths.
The Violence and Injury Prevention Program (VIPP) has partnered with the Division of Substance and Mental Health (DSAMH) to facilitate the Suicide Prevention Coalition.

Health Program Information

The Violence and Injury Prevention Program (VIPP) is a trusted and comprehensive resource for data related to violence and injury. Through education, this information helps promote partnerships and programs to prevent injuries and improve public health. VIPP goals are to a) focus prevention efforts on reducing intentional and unintentional injury, b) conduct education aimed at increasing awareness and changing behaviors that contribute to the occurrence of injury, c) strengthen local health department capacity to conduct local injury prevention programs, d) promote legislation, policy changes, and enforcement that will reduce injury hazards and increase safe behaviors, e) collaborate with private and public partners, and f) improve the Utah Department of Health capacity to collect mortality and morbidity data from multiple sources and conduct injury epidemiology for use in prevention planning, implementation, and evaluation.

Related Indicators

Relevant Population Characteristics

Males had a significantly higher suicide rate compared to females in every age group except ages 10-17 years in 2015-2017.

Related Relevant Population Characteristics Indicators:

Risk Factors

The 2013 Prevention Needs Assessment showed that students who had been bullied both at school and electronically were at especially high risk, being 5.8 times more likely to have considered suicide.
A lower risk of suicide ideation was found among students who regularly attended religious services or activities and regularly ate a meal with their family. Even among those who had experienced an episode of depressive symptoms in the previous year, students reporting religious involvement and family mealtimes were still less likely to have considered suicide in the past year.
Many conditions and stressors may be related to suicide including:
*Previous suicide attempt(s)
*History of depression or other mental illness
*Alcohol or drug abuse
*Family history of suicide or violence
*Physical illness
*Local epidemics of suicide[[br]]
[[br]]
Source: [http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/suicide/riskprotectivefactors.html] (accessed 1/4/2017)

Health Status Outcomes

Suicide, by definition is fatal. Those who attempt suicide and survive may have serious injuries like broken bones, brain damage, or organ failure. Also, people who survive often have depression and other mental health problems.
Source: [https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/suicide_factsheet-a.pdf] (accessed 1/04/2017)

Data Notes

Data Sources

Population Estimates: National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) through a collaborative agreement with the U.S. Census Bureau, IBIS Version 2017

National Center for Injury Prevention and Control's Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS)

Suicide by Local Health District, Utah and U.S., 2015-2017 and U.S. 2014-2016

Local Health District

Age-adjusted rate per 100,000 Population

Lower Limit

Upper Limit

Note

Numer- ator

Denom- inator

Record Count: 15

Bear River

16.8

13.3

21.0

83

532,397

Central

29.5

22.7

37.8

65

234,778

Davis County

17.6

15.0

20.5

170

1,023,800

Salt Lake County

22.8

21.1

24.5

740

3,361,400

San Juan

22.1

10.4

41.2

*

10

45,923

Southeast

29.5

20.3

41.5

35

120,564

Southwest

27.4

23.4

32.0

172

684,745

Summit

15.1

9.1

23.6

20

121,095

Tooele

22.1

15.7

30.3

40

194,696

TriCounty

35.5

26.8

46.2

57

173,443

Utah County

17.2

15.1

19.6

261

1,769,938

Wasatch

20.2

11.9

32.0

18

91,950

Weber-Morgan

28.6

24.8

32.8

213

776,342

State of Utah

22.0

21.0

23.0

1,884

9,131,071

U.S.

13.0

213,733

1,592,790,874

Data Notes

*Use caution in interpreting, the estimate has a relative standard error greater than 30% and does not meet UDOH standards for reliability.
Prior to 2015 San Juan County was part of the Southeast Local Health District. In 2015 the San Juan County Local Health District was formed. Data reported are for all years using the current boundaries.
Suicides are determined using ICD-10 codes X60-X84, Y87.0, *U03.

Data Sources

Population Estimates: National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) through a collaborative agreement with the U.S. Census Bureau, IBIS Version 2017

National Center for Injury Prevention and Control's Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS)

Suicide by Utah Small Area, 2015-2017 and U.S. 2014-2016

Utah Small Areas

Age-adjusted Rate per 100,000 Population

Lower Limit

Upper Limit

Note

Numer- ator

Denom- inator

Record Count: 131

Brigham City

30.1

18.5

46.3

21

74,022

Box Elder Co (Other) V2

16.7

5.4

39.0

*

5

35,674

Tremonton

17.9

7.6

35.5

*

8

49,151

Logan V2

17.1

10.5

26.4

25

167,813

North Logan

5.5

1.6

13.5

*

5

69,355

Cache (Other)/Rich (All) V2

11.8

4.7

24.4

*

7

71,370

Hyrum

**

**

Smithfield

21.9

9.3

43.6

*

8

38,690

Ben Lomond

26.8

19.5

35.9

46

183,385

Weber County (East)

27.7

18.4

40.0

29

105,782

Morgan County

12.0

3.2

31.2

*

4

34,213

Ogden (Downtown)

39.9

29.0

53.6

46

115,170

South Ogden

27.5

18.2

39.9

29

113,035

Roy/Hooper

24.0

16.1

34.5

30

141,733

Riverdale

28.3

17.6

43.1

22

82,945

Clearfield Area/Hooper

20.9

14.9

28.4

42

214,018

Layton/South Weber

13.3

9.1

18.7

33

245,484

Kaysville/Fruit Heights

23.0

14.6

34.4

24

114,710

Syracuse

18.4

10.0

31.0

14

84,300

Centerville

12.3

4.0

28.8

*

5

50,713

Farmington

14.0

5.4

29.5

*

7

66,259

North Salt Lake

22.4

10.2

42.8

*

10

59,203

Woods Cross/West Bountiful

22.0

10.0

42.0

*

9

45,934

Bountiful

19.8

12.8

29.2

26

143,351

SLC (Rose Park)

19.4

11.2

31.3

18

108,089

SLC (Avenues)

22.9

12.8

37.9

16

69,965

SLC (Foothill/East Bench)

15.4

7.3

28.6

*

10

66,103

Magna

26.2

16.1

40.4

21

84,030

SLC (Glendale) V2

17.7

9.3

30.7

13

76,960

West Valley (Center)

22.4

15.2

31.8

32

157,774

West Valley (West) V2

13.4

6.8

23.4

12

93,266

West Valley (East) V2

29.9

21.2

41.0

40

158,721

SLC (Downtown) V2

46.1

33.4

61.9

49

114,082

SLC (Southeast Liberty)

14.7

7.0

27.0

*

10

70,030

South Salt Lake

29.4

18.7

44.1

24

81,537

SLC (Sugar House)

27.8

18.1

40.7

27

101,622

Millcreek (South)

11.2

4.7

22.6

*

8

67,857

Millcreek (East)

16.9

8.8

29.2

13

74,352

Holladay V2

24.6

14.1

39.7

18

75,986

Cottonwood

22.8

15.2

32.9

30

127,560

Kearns V2

39.1

28.2

52.9

44

123,402

Taylorsville (E)/Murray (W)

28.4

19.0

40.8

30

113,758

Taylorsville (West)

21.8

13.8

32.6

24

120,542

Murray

21.8

13.8

32.9

24

104,215

Midvale

27.2

17.2

40.8

24

91,825

West Jordan (Northeast) V2

22.2

13.2

35.0

20

94,026

West Jordan (Southeast)

18.4

11.3

28.2

21

115,231

West Jordan (W)/Copperton

14.5

8.7

22.6

20

142,389

South Jordan V2

22.6

15.3

32.2

31

144,759

Daybreak

10.3

2.8

26.6

*

4

52,414

Sandy (West)

34.4

22.5

50.2

27

82,743

Sandy (Center) V2

23.0

14.0

35.7

20

88,593

Sandy (Northeast)

19.8

10.6

33.8

14

74,316

Sandy (Southeast)

18.8

10.6

30.8

17

91,170

Draper

23.3

15.2

34.2

30

134,629

Riverton/Bluffdale

15.2

8.6

24.9

17

125,326

Herriman

24.8

15.5

37.6

26

134,004

Tooele County (Other)

11.7

3.8

27.5

*

5

46,001

Tooele Valley

25.9

17.8

36.4

35

148,754

Eagle Mountain/Cedar Valley

14.0

6.0

27.8

*

9

91,722

Lehi

17.8

11.1

27.0

25

195,544

Saratoga Springs

9.1

3.0

21.0

*

6

74,840

American Fork

21.0

13.3

31.5

25

143,227

Alpine

**

**

Pleasant Grove/Lindon

13.6

8.4

21.0

21

175,965

Orem (North)

23.3

14.9

34.8

26

115,871

Orem (West)

25.1

14.8

40.0

21

104,083

Orem (East)

11.9

5.0

23.9

*

8

69,113

Provo/BYU

14.7

7.0

27.1

13

158,665

Provo (West City Center)

16.2

8.2

28.6

14

101,108

Provo (East City Center)

21.1

8.8

42.4

12

103,954

Salem City

20.9

6.7

49.2

*

5

28,260

Spanish Fork

21.2

13.2

32.2

23

126,835

Springville

21.1

12.3

33.8

18

99,588

Mapleton

**

**

Utah County (South) V2

24.8

10.4

49.7

*

8

39,969

Payson

28.0

16.9

43.7

20

79,446

Park City

8.8

3.8

17.1

*

9

87,544

Summit County (East)

30.9

14.7

57.1

*

10

33,567

Wasatch County

19.5

11.3

31.3

17

91,955

Daggett and Uintah County

32.7

22.3

46.2

33

112,312

Duchesne County

40.1

25.2

60.6

23

61,115

Nephi/Mona

32.4

13.8

64.1

*

8

28,129

Delta/Fillmore

25.0

9.5

53.0

*

7

29,758

Sanpete Valley

26.7

14.9

44.1

16

64,202

Central (Other)

34.7

21.8

52.4

23

68,170

Richfield/Monroe/Salina

25.0

11.3

47.8

*

9

44,562

Carbon County

32.1

19.0

51.0

19

61,029

Emery County

26.3

11.8

50.7

*

9

30,648

Grand County

29.5

12.4

59.1

*

8

28,876

Blanding/Monticello

**

**

San Juan County (Other)

34.4

13.4

72.3

*

7

22,061

St. George

29.3

22.4

37.7

66

258,765

Washington Co (Other) V2

29.9

11.5

63.3

*

7

29,299

Washington City

38.7

24.0

59.1

23

71,034

Hurricane/La Verkin

15.6

7.5

28.7

*

11

75,931

Ivins/Santa Clara

35.9

18.7

62.4

13

44,579

Cedar City

19.9

12.4

30.3

24

132,143

Southwest LHD (Other)

36.6

23.0

55.3

24

72,878

State of Utah

22.0

21.0

23.0

1,884

9,131,071

U.S.

13.0

2014-2016

213,733

1,592,790,874

Data Notes

*Use caution in interpreting, the estimate has a relative standard error greater than 30% and does not meet UDOH standards for reliability.
**The estimate has been suppressed because 1) the relative standard error is greater than 50% or 2) the observed number of events is very small and not appropriate for publication.
For more information, please go to [http://ibis.health.utah.gov/pdf/resource/DataSuppression.pdf].
A description of the Utah Small Areas may be found on IBIS at the following URL: [https://ibis.health.utah.gov/resource/Guidelines.html].
Suicides are determined using ICD-10 codes X60-X84, Y87.0, *U03.

Data Sources

Population estimates produced by the UDOH Center for Health Data and Informatics. Linear interpolation of U.S. Census Bureau and ESRI ZIP Code data provided annual population estimates for ZIP Code areas by sex and age groups, IBIS Version 2017

National Center for Injury Prevention and Control's Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS)

Data Notes

*Use caution in interpreting rates for females ages 10-14 years and 75+ years. The estimates have a relative standard error greater than 30% and are therefore deemed unreliable by UDOH standards.
For more information, please go to [http://ibis.health.utah.gov/pdf/resource/DataSuppression.pdf].
Suicides are determined using ICD-10 codes X60-X84, Y87.0, *U03.

Data Notes

Percentage of students who actually attempted suicide one or more times during the past 12 months.
Data are self-reported and subject to recall bias. Data are from a sample survey and subject to selection bias. Comparisons of annual rates must be interpreted cautiously as methods used to collect YRBS data may vary from year to year.
Utah data not available from 2015 due to insufficient participation according to CDC criteria.

Data Notes

Percentage of students who made a plan about how they would attempt suicide during the past 12 months.
Data are self-reported and subject to recall bias. Data are from a sample survey and subject to selection bias. Comparisons of annual rates must be interpreted cautiously as methods used to collect YRBS data may vary from year to year.
Utah data not available from 2015 due to insufficient participation according to CDC criteria.

Utah DOH

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